For David Cameron, it proved to be a case of you can’t always get what you
want when Mick Jagger pulled out of a tea party at the Davos summit after
complaining of being used as a “political football”.

Sir Mick, 68, had agreed to attend the event, which is designed to promote
Britain at the Swiss summit, alongside Sir Tim Berners-Lee, who is credited
as the inventor of the world wide web, and the model and actress Lily Cole.

But the rock’n’roll singer, who famously attended the London School of
Economics, has become frustrated that reports of his attendance had painted
him as a supporter of the Tories.

“During my career I have always eschewed party politics and came to Davos as a
guest, as I thought it would be stimulating,” Sir Mick said in a statement.
“I have always been interested in economics and world events.

“I now find myself being used as a political football and there has been a lot
of comment about my political allegiances which are inaccurate.” He added
that he had decided to decline the invitation and cut short his visit.

The Conservative Party, which had hailed Sir Mick’s attendance as a PR coup,
has since stressed that the Davos event is “non-political” and that there
had been no suggestion that the rock star was a supporter of the party.

The high-profile snub is a blow for Mr Cameron, who has been fighting to
assuage fears that the 0.2 per cent decline in gross domestic product in the
last three months of 2011 signals the start of a double-dip recession.

Sir Mick, who is worth £190 million and ranked at number 364 in the Sunday
Times Rich list, is seen as a very shrewd operator in the music sector.

Walter Yetnikoff, a Columbia law graduate who ran CBS Records for 15 years,
recalled in his autobiography having signed the Rolling Stones to the label
in the 1980s. He was amazed that Sir Mick was able to calculate the tax on
records sold in France much quicker than he could at a meeting after the
deal was struck.